Scilab Function
Last update : 22/3/2005

xls_open - Open an Excel file for reading

### Calling Sequence

  `[fd,SST,Sheetnames,Sheetpos] = xls_open(file_path)`

### Parameters

- `file_path` : a character string: the path of the Excel file.
- `fd` : a number, the logical unit on the Excel stream.
- `SST` : A vector of all character strings which appear in the Excel sheets.
- `Sheetnames` : a vector of strings: the sheet names.
- `Sheetpos` : a vector of numbers: the position of the beginning of sheets in the Excel stream.

### Description

This function first analyzes the ole2 data structure associated with the given file to extract the Excel stream which is included in. After that the Excel stream is saved in the `TMDIR` directory and opened. The `fd` logical unit points to this temporary file. Then the first sheet in this stream is read to get the global informations like number of sheets, sheet names `Sheetnames`, sheet adresses within the stream `Sheetpos` and the `SST` which contains all the strings used in the following sheets.

The `fd` and `Sheetpos` data have to be passed to `xls_read` to read the data sheets.

The `readxls` function can be used to read all an Excel file in one function with a single function call.

Warning only BIFF8 Excel files (last Excel file version) are handled

### Examples

       //Decode ole file, extract and open Excel stream
        [fd,SST,Sheetnames,Sheetpos] = xls_open('SCI/demos/excel/Test1.xls')
        //Read first data sheet
        [Value,TextInd] = xls_read(fd,Sheetpos(1))
        //close the excel stream
        mclose(fd)

### See Also

`xls_read`, `readxls`,

### Authors

  Pierrick Mode INRIA
  Serge Steer INRIA

### Bibliography

This function is based on the Microsoft ole2 file documentation (http://chicago.sourceforge.net/devel/docs/ole/) and on Excel stream description from OpenOffice (http://sc.openoffice.org/excelfileformat.pdf).

### Used Function

The ripole-0.1.4 procedure (http://www.pldaniels.com/ripole) is used to extract the excel stream out of the ole file.